The Beer Nut: Stone Brewing Co. now has a book

The Stone Brewing Company brews brash, hoppy, bitter and big in-your-face beers. Now the founders of the Escondido, Calif., brewery and its public relations director have written a book that details Stone's history and discusses the various beers. It also includes homebrew recipes for a number of beers, as well as recipes for different dishes from the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens.

Now the founders of the Escondido, Calif., brewery and its public relations director have written a book that details Stone's history and discusses the various beers. It also includes homebrew recipes for a number of beers, as well as recipes for different dishes from the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens.

"The Craft of Stone Brewing Co. Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes, and Unabashed Arrogance," by Greg Koch, Steve Wagner and Randy Clemens, was released last week.

The book itself is a beautiful hardcover. Published by Ten Speed Press, the 201 page book retails for $25. It's also full of quality, glossy photos -- a perfect coffee-table book.

"Things are almost universally better when people do something the way they think it should be done," said Stone co-founder and CEO Koch, who founded the brewery in 1996 with Wagner.

"Brewing tasty beer in our particular way; taking advice and supporting our vision; sharing the story of our unique style of success ... that's why Stone has been such a fast-growing company for so long."

"The Craft of Stone Brewing Co." is split up in four separate parts. The first part includes A Story Called Stone, which tells the history of the brewery and how Koch and Wagner came together to form it.

It also tells the story of how they picked the gargoyle as the iconic logo.

I learned something new in this chapter -- Stone planned on brewing traditional European beers. If you have had any beers from Stone, you know that they are far from anything traditionally brewed in Europe, or pretty much anywhere else. They started their own tradition.

Part two is a description of all the beers brewed by Stone, broken up into several categories: Year-Round and Annual Releases, Stone Anniversary Ales, Stone Vertical Epic Ales, Special Releases and Retired Beers, Collaboration Beers and April Fool's Day "Releases."

Part three will get a lot of homebrewers and home chefs excited.

The book includes 18 homebrew recipes of Stone's beers, ranging from popular year-round beers such as Stone's Pale Ale and Stone Smoked Porter, to seven different anniversary ales (including the excellent Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout).

Other recipes include rare beers, such as Lee's Mild and Heat Seeking Wheat, and several collaboration beers, such as the Brew Dog/Cambridge Brewing Company/Stone Juxtaposition Black Pilsner.

The food recipes come directly from the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens. All are beyond my meager cooking skills, although I may try the Garlic, Cheddar, and Stone Ruination IPA Soup.